System And Method For Monitoring And Control Of Wind Farms

ABSTRACT

A wind farm monitoring and control system, includes at least one wind farm, at least one intelligent management server connectable to the at least one wind farm via a data communication network, and at least one wind farm configuration tool related to the intelligent management server for establishment of connection(s) to the at least one wind farm. A system for monitoring and control of wind farms is provided. The monitoring and control is performed so that it is possible to monitor and control several wind farms homogeneously. Hereby it is possible to monitor and control different wind farms simultaneously with a uniform output and it is moreover possible to compare data from the wind farms.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of pending Internationalpatent application PCT/DK2008/000013 filed on Jan. 15, 2008 whichdesignates the United States and claims priority from Danish patentapplication PA 2007 00056 filed on Jan. 15, 2007, the content of whichis incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a system for monitoring and control of windturbine generators. More particularly, the invention relates tomonitoring and control of wind farms having several wind turbinegenerators.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The strategically distributed nature of wind power presents uniquechallenges. A wind farm comprises several wind turbines located on- oroffshore, and often covers large geographic areas.

These factors usually require a variety of networked interconnectionsand telecommunication technologies for monitoring and controlling windpower electric generating facilities referred to as SCADA (SCADA:Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition).

Today, it is possible to monitor and control wind farms from a remotedistance by means of e.g. a remote client computer logging on to thewind farm network.

Prior art presents several ways of monitoring and controlling windturbines and wind farms. International patent application WO 2003/029648teaches a method and computer system for handling operational data ofwind power plants. International patent application WO 2005/042971presents an example of a control network of a wind farm network.European patent application EP 1519040 discloses a method for a remotereading and changing of power settings in wind turbine generators.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a wind farm monitoring and control system, saidsystem comprising

-   -   at least one wind farm (WF),    -   at least one intelligent management server (IMS) connectable to        said at least one wind farm (WF) via a data communication        network (DCN),    -   at least one wind farm configuration tool (WCT) related to said        intelligent management server (IMS) for establishment of        connection(s) to said at least one wind farm (WF).

It should be noted that the wind farm configuration tool may be locatedalmost anywhere as long as the established configuration may betransferred to the intelligent management server.

A data communication network is in accordance with the present inventionunderstood as any suitable network communicating data, e.g. a local areanetwork, a Ethernet, etc. communicating via cabling, optical fiber or awireless connection. A public data communication network PDCN or datacommunication network (DCN) is understood as a network which may bewired, e.g. lease line, dialup line, fiber, ADSL, cable and/or wireless,e.g. licensed radio, spread spectrum, cellular, WLAN or satellite.

In an embodiment of the invention, said system comprises at least twointelligent management servers.

The different intelligent management servers may thus e.g. communicateto one specified wind farm on the basis of different namespaces therebybasically establishing a system where the intelligent management servershave different access options to the same wind farm. The differentaccess may be established by the wind farm configuration tool, whereasthe different access at least partly may be defined by the establishedand dedicated namespaces.

An intelligent management server may typically simply designate a dataprocessing server located remotely to the wind farm.

The intelligent management server may often be positioned at the site ofan operator.

The intelligent management server may advantageously be individuallyconfigured by means of said wind farm configuration tool.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the intelligent managementserver may be configured to communicate to a specified wind farm, bymeans of connections and according a namespace individually related tothe specified farm.

If the intelligent management server communicates with several windfarms, the server may communicate according to different name spacesdefined by or according to the individual wind farm.

In an embodiment of the invention, said system comprises at least twowind farms.

In an embodiment of the invention, said system furthermore comprising anamespace defining a set of logical elements.

A wind farm is, according to an embodiment of the invention, understoodas an arrangement which may at least partly comprise the following: oneor several wind turbine generators, one or several substations, one orseveral meteorological equipment, and one or several SCADA servers whichmay be related to a control station.

The present invention presents a system for monitoring and control ofwind farms. The monitoring and control is performed so that it ispossible to monitor and control several wind farms homogeneously. Herebyit is possible to monitor different wind farms simultaneously with auniform output and it is moreover possible to compare data from the windfarms.

A namespace is according to an embodiment of the invention understood asa definition of the logical elements of the wind farm WF, of which datamay be exchanged. An element will normally correspond to a logicalelement or a physical device such as a wind turbine or meteorologicalstation. Each logical element may be associated with a tree structure ofsub-elements.

In an embodiment of the invention, said data communication network is apublic data communication network.

A public data communication network may e.g. comprise a wired or awireless communication system.

Evidently, the system may alternatively apply a data communicationnetwork dedicated to the connection.

In an embodiment of the invention, said wind farm furthermore comprisesmeans for processing data according to said namespace.

It is according to an embodiment of the invention possible for aprocessor related to a wind farm, e.g. the SCADA server to process windfarm data e.g. by means of scaling data according to the relevantnamespace. The processing may also involve a recalculation of a data,e.g. from Celsius degrees to Fahrenheit degrees or from kilowatt tomegawatt. A processing may also involve a pre calculation of data, forexample replacement of particular data. This is a very advantageousfeature in that the data may become homogenous. Hereby it is ensuredthat the intelligent management server may present data from severalwind farms in a homogeneous way and even compare data from differentwind farms.

The scaling may be performed by means of transmitting scaling factorsand scaling properties together with the namespace to the currentintelligent management server. Alternatively, the scaling may be bypre-scaling the data in relation to the wind farm and transmitting thescaled data to the intelligent management server subsequently.

Thus, scaling may e.g. imply that data communicated via the connectionbetween the wind farm(s) and the intelligent management server isconverted prior to transmitting data e.g. at the wind farm.

Alternatively, data may be transmitted together with metadata which maybe applied at the recipient site for the purpose of converting—ifnecessary—the received data into the desired format.

In an embodiment of the invention, said namespace is restrictedaccording to a user specific authentication and/or authorizationproperties.

According to an advantageous and preferred embodiment of the invention,a namespace may be modeled to fit to a specific user on the basis of anavailable aggregate namespace at the wind farm or in relation to thewind farm.

In other words, one user may communicate with the wind farm according toa specified—and dedicated—namespace, whereas another user maycommunicate on the basis of a namespace which has been restrictedotherwise, if so desired.

In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention, theintelligent management server IMS may provide means for controlling orvarying the graphical user interface according to the authorizationpermissions of a user. This may e.g. be by means of hiding specific infoor controls in the graphical user interface GUI if a user is notauthorized to se or change these. This is a very advantageous featureaccording to an embodiment of the invention in that it may be ofinterest to the wind park owner that the different users may havedifferent access possibilities.

In an embodiment of the invention, said intelligent management server islocated at a remote distance with reference to said at least one windfarm.

In an embodiment of the invention, said namespace is defined accordingto a connected intelligent management server.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a namespace may be definedaccording to, i.e. dedicated to, the communication between a wind farmand a specified intelligent management server.

In an embodiment of the invention, said namespace is defined accordingto a specific user and/or client.

According to an embodiment of the invention, a namespace may be definedaccording to, i.e. dedicated to, the communication between a wind farmand specified user, e.g. specified companies or even specified persons.

In an embodiment of the invention, said system furthermore comprises aclient connectable to said intelligent management server via a datacommunication network for surveillance and control of said wind farmsvia said intelligent management server.

It is within the scope of the invention that a client may access thefeatures of the system. A client is according to an embodiment of theinvention understood as a device which may comprise a processor and datastorage means, e.g. a personal computer (PC), a mobile phone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), etc. The client may also be software component.The client may be controlled by a user, e.g. a wind farm operator, thewind farm vendor, the utilities company etc.

In the specific context, a client may e.g. be understood as a softwaremodule which may be run executed on any suitable hardware platform.

In an embodiment of the invention, said intelligent management server isassociated to a graphical user interface.

The graphical user interface may facilitate access visualrepresentations of data received from different wind farms and the datamay be presented in order to establish a correlation visually. A visualcorrelation may e.g. imply that data relating to power of different windparks may be correlated.

Moreover, a graphical user interface may facilitate that a user maytransmit control signals to different wind parks even if the wind parksbasically refer to different types of SCADA systems.

Moreover, the graphical user interface may advantageously present theavailable control commands available to the user with respect to theindividual connected wind farms in a comparable manner.

In an embodiment of the invention, said client may edit and control saidnamespace by means of said wind farm namespace tool.

One embodiment of the invention furthermore presents a wind farmnamespace tool for configuring the namespace of wind farms. Thenamespace tool may be related to an intelligent management server. Thewind farm namespace tool makes it possible for a system administrator todefine an exact namespace for a specific wind farm. The wind farmnamespace may be stored so it is reachable for the wind farm. Hereby itis possible when an intelligent management server via a wind parkconfiguration tool connects to a wind farm; the namespace for that windfarm may automatically be transmitted to the intelligent managementserver. This is very advantageous in that all intelligent managementservers which connect to a wind park may automatically retrieve thenamespace from the wind farm. This entails that a change in thenamespace will be distributed to all intelligent management serversautomatically. This is a very advantageous feature of an embodiment ofthe invention in that system administrator may save much time onupdating remote clients. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, an administrator will just need to update the namespace inthe relevant wind farm.

In an embodiment of the invention, said wind farm configuration toolcomprises means for definition of wind farm connections to at least onewind farm.

In an embodiment of the invention, said wind farm configuration tool isexternal with reference to the intelligent management server.

The wind farm configuration tool may basically be an external tool bymeans of which the required configuration of connections is establishedand then transferred to the intelligent management server. Typically,the intelligent management server establishes and maintains thecommunication to and from the wind farm.

Typically, the intelligent management server establishes and maintainsthe communication and connections to and from the wind farm according tothe farm(s) according to a configuration established by the wind farmconfiguration tool.

In an embodiment of the invention, said namespace (N) is stored inrelation to said wind farm.

According to a embodiment of the invention, the namespace related to aspecified wind farm should be stored at the wind farm or at least beavailable at the wind farm.

In an embodiment of the invention, said namespace is stored at the windfarm in relation to the SCADA server.

In an embodiment of the invention, said namespace represents the logicalelements of a corresponding wind farm.

In an embodiment of the invention, said namespace is at least partlydistributed at least partly between said wind park to said intelligentmanagement server.

In an embodiment of the invention, said intelligent management servercomprises means for retrieval of a namespace from a wind farm inconnection with connecting to a wind farm.

In an embodiment of the invention, said wind farm comprises means formaintaining an event-log which involves storage of type and time of allevents at least partly.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, an event-logshould be kept at the wind farm in order to provide an easedtroubleshooting and/or fault detection. This is in particular importantdue to the fact that the invention basically facilitates that e.g. aSCADA system of a wind farm may be controlled or influenced by severaldifferent users, e.g. a local SCADA operator and an operator or theintelligent management server (IMS).

When several users may access the same wind farm, it is advantageous tomonitor or maintain a log of all events performed both locally andremotely e.g. via the intelligent management server. The logged data maye.g. be stored in the storage means related to the wind farm. It ispossible for a system administrator to retrieve a log file from the windfarm. This log file may be of great value if for example two usersdisagree about who is responsible for a specific event, such as reducingthe maximum produced power of a wind park.

In an embodiment of the invention, said intelligent management servercomprises security facilities.

In an embodiment of the invention, said security facilities defines thatan intelligent management server requires a password and/or a donglefrom a user to provide access to data from the wind farm, and herebydefines the authentication properties.

It is within the scope of the invention that a user must beauthenticated and/or authorized when accessing the intelligentmanagement server. This may be a user typing a username and acorresponding password and if necessary connects a dongle. A dongle isunderstood as an electronic device that must be attached to a computere.g. the client in order to gain access to a wind park.

In an embodiment of the invention, said connection(s) are communicatingon the basis of a namespace established by a wind farm namespace tool.

The namespaces are typically established on the basis of aggregate(typically predefined) namespace by restrictions and the establishedrestricted namespaces may be individually restricted and dedicated tospecified connections. A restricted namespace may also within the scopeof the invention be referred to as a fragmented namespace.

Evidently, a dedication may involve that fragmented namespace may bededicated to one specific, several or all of said connections.

Furthermore, it should be noted that a fragmented name in principle maybe chosen to comprise the complete aggregate namespace if so desired.

In an embodiment of the invention, said namespace tool is associated toor incorporated in said wind farm configuration tool.

Moreover, the invention relates to a method of monitoring andcontrolling a wind farm comprising the steps of

-   -   establishing wind farm connections from an intelligent        management server to at least one wind farm on the basis of        definitions established by means of a wind farm configuration        tool,    -   obtaining a namespace from said at least one wind farm,    -   obtaining measure or monitoring data on said intelligent        management server from said at least one wind farm.

It should be noted that measure and monitoring data may both be obtainedprior to or subsequent to the obtaining of a namespace by means of whichthe obtained measure and monitoring data may be interpreted.

In an embodiment of the invention, said method moreover comprises thestep of controlling at least one logical element of said wind farm.

In an embodiment of the invention, said wind farm connections definespecified wind farm(s) and specified intelligent management server(s)between which connections are made or are to be made.

The establishment of a connection may be regarded as a configuration fordefining the communicating parties.

In an embodiment of the invention, said method further comprises thestep of dedicating a namespace to said connection by means of a windfarm namespace tool.

Evidently, the namespace tool may be more or less integrated in othertools such as the configuration tool.

The dedication of a namespace to a certain connection avails e.g. thatcommunication from the intelligent management server to different windfarms may be made by means of different namespaces, e.g. differentfragmented versions of an aggregated namespace covering all connectedwind farms or alternatively, availing a certain wind farm to communicatewith different intelligent management servers according to differentnamespaces according to the definitions established by the namespacetool.

In an embodiment of the invention, said method comprises the step ofestablishing wind farm connections from an intelligent management serverto at least two wind farms by means of a wind farm configuration tool.

Furthermore, the invention relates to a method of establishing acommunication between an intelligent management server and at least onewind farm, said method comprising the steps of

-   -   obtaining namespace defining information from a wind farm,    -   communicating with said wind farm on the basis of said namespace        defining information.

In an embodiment of the invention, said namespace defining informationrelates to a namespace defined by a wind farm namespace tool.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will be described in the following with reference to thefigures in which

FIG. 1 illustrates a large modern wind turbine as seen from the front,

FIG. 2 illustrates an overview of a typical wind farm according to anexample of the prior art.

FIG. 3 illustrates an overview of a typical wind farm according to anembodiment of the invention,

FIG. 4 illustrates an overview of two wind farms according to an exampleof the prior art,

FIG. 5 illustrates an overview of two wind farms according to anembodiment of the invention,

FIG. 6 illustrates a detailed view of the intelligent management systemand elements that may interact with this,

FIG. 7 illustrates some principles of a wind farm configuration tool,

FIG. 8 illustrates the principles of the namespace definitions transferbetween the SCADA servers and the intelligent management server,

FIG. 9 illustrates the principles of how a namespace may be applied asone aggregate namespace or as a fragmented namespace,

FIGS. 10A and 10B illustrate a further feature of the application offragmented namespaces according to some embodiments of the invention,and

FIG. 11 illustrates the advantageous principle of how an intelligentmanagement server may merge two or more different namespaces into onesingle merged namespace.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a modern wind turbine 1, comprising a tower 2 and awind turbine nacelle 4 positioned on top of the tower 2. The tower 2 isbuilt up of a plurality of tower segments 3. The wind turbine rotor 5,comprising three wind turbine blades 6, is connected to the nacelle 4through the low speed shaft which extends out of the nacelle 4 front.

FIG. 2 illustrates an overview of a typical wind farm WF according anexample of the prior art. A wind farm comprises a number of wind turbinegenerators WTG which may be located in the same area in a group onshoreor offshore. The wind turbines may be assembled to constitute a totalunified power producing unit that may be connected to the utility grid.A wind farm typically has a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition(SCADA) server SCS that may be related to a master or control station. Awind farm may furthermore comprise a substation SS which may compriseswitchgears, breakers, Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems andother equipment to control the generated power and power output of thewind farm WF to the power grid. Moreover, a wind farm may comprise ameteorological station MS which may comprise equipment for e.g.measuring wind speed, air humidity and the wind direction.

The SCADA server SCS may comprise a number of computers whichcontinuously monitor the condition of the wind turbine and collectstatistics on its operation. The SCADA server SCS may also control alarge number of switchgears, hydraulic pumps valves, and motors withinthe wind turbine, typically via communication with a wind turbinecontroller of the wind turbine. The SCADA server SCS may also controlelements in a sub-station SS. The control stations may be connected tothe wind farm locally or remotely via a data communication network DCNor a public data communication network PDCN, e.g. the internet. The datacommunication network DCN may e.g. comprise a local area network LANand/or a public data connection network, e.g. the internet. Evidently,the meteorological station MS and the sub-station may comprise their owncomputer and data storage facilities, e.g. servers and databases,communicating with the SCADA server SCS.

For monitoring and control purposes it is possible to log on to the windfarm WF locally via a data communication network DCN or remotely via apublic data communication network PDCN, e.g. the internet. This may bedone from a computer functioning as a client C logging on to the SCADAserver SCS of the wind farm. From a client C logged on to the wind farmsystem it is possible to monitor the wind farm which may e.g. be areading of a pressure meter of a valve of one of the wind turbinegenerators WTG. It is moreover possible for the client C to control theelements of the wind farm WF.

The client may however be running a special dedicated software componentfor a specific wind turbine.

FIG. 3 illustrates an overview of a wind farm WF according to anembodiment of the invention. The figure illustrates the same elements asdescribed with reference to FIG. 2, and additionally the figureillustrates an intelligent management server IMS. The intelligentmanagement server may, as illustrated, be connected to a wind farm inthe same manner as a conventionally connected client C as described withreference to FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 illustrates an overview of two wind farms WF1, WF2 according toan example of the prior art. The figure furthermore illustrates acontrol centre CC from which a wind farm 1 client WF1C may be connectedto wind farm 1 and where a wind farm 2 client WF2C may be connected windfarm 2 WF2. The clients WF1C, WF2C may, for monitoring and controlpurposes, log on to the wind farms locally or remotely via a datacommunication network or via a public data communication network PDCN,e.g. the internet. From a client WF1C, WF2C logged on to the wind farmsystem it is possible to monitor the wind farm which may e.g. be areading of a pressure meter of a valve of one of the wind turbinegenerators WTG. It is moreover possible from the client WF1C, WF2C tocontrol the elements of the wind farm WF1, WF2. This may e.g. beinstructions to a given wind turbine WTG in one of the wind farms WF1,WF2 to change the reactive power factor of a wind turbine WTG or thewind farm or instructions to start or stop a wind turbine or a windfarm.

The clients WF1C, WF2C may necessarily in this prior art example be adedicated special software component for each specific wind park.

This entails that it may be difficult to compare data directly becausethe data are defined in different data types and namespaces.

Another problem in the prior art is that the namespaces N of the windfarms are centrally managed from the clients. If, for example, thecontrol center CC logs on to the wind farm 1 WF1 via the wind farm 1client WF1C it is the client interface that determines the namespace,i.e. which data that may be exchanged from the wind farm WF1. If anotherdedicated client connects to wind farm 1 WF1, the namespace may again beclient-specific and the namespace of the two clients connected to thesame wind farm may not be identical.

According to this example of prior art, it is not possible to restrictthe access to fragments of namespaces N of a wind farm. Therefore, theonly restrictions possible is either to gain access to the completenamespace or alternatively to gain access to no data.

The namespace defines the logical elements of the wind farm WF, of whichdata may be exchanged. An element will normally correspond to a physicaldevice such as a wind turbine or meteorological station. Each elementmay be associated with a tree structure of sub-elements. Examples ofelements to be a part of the namespace according to an embodiment of thepresent invention may be:

“Active alarm code”. Indicates if the wind turbines are in alarm mode,and what alarm code.

“Active power measurement”. Active power is the total power generated bythe wind farm WF or one single wind turbine generator WTG.

“Power Set Point” refers to a standard well-known measure which may e.g.involve regulation of the power factor, i.e. the relation between activeand reactive power. This regulation may e.g. relate to regulation of thepower performed by means of a central control unit serving two or morewind turbines. Such central control may be continuous or initiated fromtime to time automatically and/or manually.

“Turbine run state” comprises information of the current run state of awind turbine e.g. if the wind turbine is stopped.

“Wind speed” comprises information of the current wind speed measured atthe wind farm.

FIG. 5 illustrates an overview of two wind farms WF1, WF2 according toan embodiment of the invention. This figure illustrates a systemoverview of how the control center CC utilizes an intelligent managementserver IMS to connect to several wind farms WF1, WF2. A client C mayhereby contact several wind farms WF1, WF2 and present homogenousinformation of one or several wind parks to a user via the intelligentmanagement server IMS. In conventional system it is however not possibleto represent the wind farms in a homogenous manner at a client C. It ismoreover possible to control the wind farms in a homogeneous manner bymeans of an advantageous obtaining of namespace information which willbe described with reference to FIG. 6-11. A user may furthermore controlthe wind parks WF1 WF2 via the client C. The intelligent managementserver IMS is thus a very advantageous server that may connect toseveral wind farms which is more specifically described with referenceto FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 illustrates a detailed view of the intelligent management systemIMSY and elements that may interact with this. The intelligentmanagement system IMSY comprises according to an embodiment of theinvention a wind farm configuration tool WCT, a wind farm namespace toolWNT and an intelligent management server IMS. The figure moreoverillustrates a client C, a public data communication network PDCN, anumber of wind farms WF1, WF2, . . . , WFn and storage means SM.

By means of the wind farm configuration tool WCT it is possible for auser to configure which wind farms WF1, WF2, . . . , Fw3 to connect tofrom the intelligent management server IMS. This may be done by enteringwind farm characterizing information in a wind farm configuration toolWCT which may run as an application in the intelligent management systemIMSY. The information may e.g. be:

-   -   Address for a wind farm WF, for example internet protocol (IP)        address.    -   Username and password for the wind farm SCADA server SCS.    -   Username and password for a file transfer protocol (FTP)        connection.

The wind farm namespace tool WNT is a tool which makes it possible todetermine which elements of the wind farms WF it should be possible tomonitor and control from the intelligent management system IMSY, andcomprises thus means for configuring the namespace for a wind farm WF.

In a system of one or several wind farms WF many types of data thatusers access, manage, store, and possibly share exist. A namespace canbe provisioned as a data structure to collectively reference andorganize the various types of data.

A namespace may, according to an embodiment of the invention, be relatedto a particular wind farm WF, entailing that all users of one wind parkmay access the same data structure, utilizing the same namespace. Thisis very advantageous in that a namespace is defined for a wind farm,when the namespace N may be saved to storage means SM related to thespecific wind park. This entails that another user connects to the samewind farm WF, e.g. via an intelligent management server IMS, when thenamespace may be retrieved from the wind farm WF. This decentralizedstorage of namespace is according to an embodiment of the inventionensuring that only one namespace may exist for a wind farm WF, even ifseveral users may connect to the wind farm WF.

In another embodiment of the invention, an individual or privatenamespace associated with an individual user may exist or a namespaceassociated with designated members of the namespace. For example, a windfarm WF can be implemented or set up so that only designated members mayaccess critical data associated with the wind farm WF. Thus, it iswithin the scope of the invention that several namespaces N may existfor one wind farm which may be controlled by a user e.g. anadministrator by means of the wind farm namespace tool WNT.

Furthermore, the wind farm namespace tool WNT comprises means fordefining possible and suitable scaling factors to the elements or datain the namespace N. The wind farm namespace tool WNT may be used by e.g.system administrators to define scaling factors for each wind farm WFthe intelligent management server IMS may connect to. The scaling ofdata in a namespace means that an intelligent management server IMSwhich communicates with several wind farms may obtain a uniform outputfrom the wind farms. In particular it may be possible to directlycompare data from different wind farms. Moreover it is according to anembodiment of the invention possible for the wind farm namespace toolWNT to apply a processing of data related to the namespace. Theprocessing of data may e.g. be a recalculation of a data from Celsiusdegrees to Fahrenheit degrees or from kilowatt to megawatt. A processingmay also involve a pre calculation of data, for example replacement ofparticular data. The scaling of data according to a namespace may beperformed directly on the SCADA server SCS in the wind farm WF or inrelation to the intelligent management system IMSY, e.g. on theintelligent management server IMS. The following constitutes an exampleof the how references of different wind farms may be converted intouniform references.

At a first wind farm WF1 with a type x wind turbine example of referenceto the active power production:

Turb1.Generator.ActivePowerProduction (in KWh)

At a second wind farm WF2 with a type y wind turbine example ofreference to the active power production:

WTG2.Gen.ActivePower.Prod (in MWh)

After a processing of data according to an embodiment of the inventionvia a name and scaling the namespace for the intelligent managementserver IMS the references to may be uniform as shown the following:

T01.Generator.Production.ActivePower (This is in KWh)

T02.Generator.Production.ActivePower (Scaled to KWh)

As shown, the active power data may be accessed in a homogenous manneraccording to the uniform processed namespace.

The intelligent management server IMS may present a graphical userinterface (GUI) on a client to a user comprising a number of elementsrepresenting the monitoring data retrieved from one or several windfarms WF. In accordance with an embodiment of the invention, theintelligent management server IMS may provide means for controlling orvarying the graphical user interface according to the authorizationpermissions of a user. This may e.g. be by means of hiding specificcontrols in the graphical user interface GUI if a user is not authorizedto se or change these.

An advantage related to the intelligent management server IMS and thepossibility of communicating to several wind farms relies in that,contrary to the prior art systems, integration of data, e.g.measurements originating from different wind farms, may be integrateddirectly into appropriate databases, thereby avoiding a complex setup ofnon-homogenous data conversion(s) either between the wind farms and theintelligent management server IMS or at the intelligent managementserver IMS as such.

Another aspect of this is that the conversion of data may be applied atthe wind farms or in close relation thereto.

FIG. 7 illustrates some principles of a wind farm configuration tool WCTaccording to an embodiment of the invention.

The wind farm configuration tool WCT is applied for the purpose ofestablishing connections to wind farms WF1, WF2 . . . WFn.

In the illustrated embodiment, the connections are established via adata communication network such as the Public Data Communication NetworkPDCN or any other suitable communication means.

FIG. 8 illustrates the principles of the namespace definitions transferbetween the SCADA servers SCS1, SCS2, . . . , SCSn, and the intelligentmanagement server IMS. The namespaces definitions NSD1, NSD2, . . . ,NSDn are according to an embodiment of the invention stored in relationto the SCADA servers SCS1, SCS2, . . . , SCSn in the wind farm or atleast a representation thereof may be transmitted to the intelligentmanagement server IMS. The transmission of the namespace definitionsNSD1, NSD2, . . . , NSDn may be performed when a intelligent managementserver IMS connects to a wind farm. Alternatively, the transmission ofnamespace definitions NSD1, NSD2, . . . , NSDn may be done continuouslyfor example an updated namespace definition may be transmitted to theintelligent management server IMS once every hour. In another embodimentof the present invention, the namespace definitions NSD1, NSD2, . . . ,NSDn may be stored with no physical relation to the SCADA servers SCS1,SCS2, . . . , SCSn or the wind farms WF. However, it should be notedthat the namespace definitions NSD1, NSD2, . . . , NSDn may representthe data structure in accordance with a specific wind farm WF.

FIG. 9 illustrates the principles of how a namespace N may be applied asone aggregate namespace or as a fragmented namespace according to anembodiment of the invention. The figure illustrates an aggregatenamespace AN and a number of fragmented namespaces FN1, FN2, FN3 . . .FNn. The aggregate namespace AN represents an example of a fullavailable namespace N according to a wind farm WF.

This means that the aggregate namespace AN represents all possiblelogical elements and sub-elements of a wind farm that a user client mayconnect to. However, it is possible for system administrators by meansof the wind farm namespace tool WNT to set up a special configurations,i.e. configure which fragments should be included in the fragmentednamespace for each user independently.

The figure illustrates different examples of fragmented namespaces FN1,FN2, FN3 . . . FNn according to an embodiment of the invention. Theseexamples show that different fragments of namespaces may be provided.For example, a fragmented namespace FN2 may only include one smallfragment which illustrates that the user allocated to that fragmentednamespace may only access a very limited part of the full aggregatenamespace AN.

The method of controlling the authentication and/or authorizationproperties may thus be by means of allocating different fragments of theaggregate namespace, i.e. a fragmented namespace FN, to different usersdependent on their respective authorization properties. The allocationof different aggregate and/or fragmented namespaces to different usersmay be done by means of an authentication of a user performed on therespective wind farm, e.g. in relation to a SCADA server SCS. Thefragmentation of an aggregate namespace AN into a fragmented namespaceFN may be performed in relation to the wind farm WF, or alternatively inthe intelligent management server dependent on the current user and theauthorization properties.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, each fragmentednamespace FN1, FN2, FN3 . . . FNn may be dedicated to the communicationbetween a specific wind farm and the intelligent management server(s).In other words, a fragmented namespace FN1 may, with reference to FIG.6, e.g. refer to the communication between the intelligent managementserver system IMSY and the wind farm WF1, the fragmented namespace FN2may refer to the communication between the intelligent management serversystem IMSY and the wind farm WF2 and so forth.

FIG. 10A and FIG. 10B illustrate a further feature of the application offragmented namespaces according to some embodiments of the invention.

In the embodiment of FIG. 10A, a number of wind farms WF1, WF2, . . . ,WFn, i.e. two or more, may be associated to an intelligent managementserver IMS monitoring and/or controlling the wind farms WF1, WF2, . . ., WFn by means of communication on the basis of fragmented namespacesFN. These fragmented namespaces FN may be different for each wind farmWF1, WF2, . . . , WFn and may thereby provide different authorizationproperties to the intelligent management server IMS. The fragmentednamespaces may advantageously comprise restricted versions of anaggregate namespace AN as explained in connection with the aboveexplained FIG. 9.

In another embodiment of the invention, the connection of theintelligent management server to the wind farms WF1, WF2, . . . , WFnmay be established on the basis of aggregate namespaces or a combinationof aggregate namespaces AN and fragmented namespaces FN.

The embodiment of FIG. 10B illustrates several intelligent managementservers IMS1, IMS2, . . . , IMSn which may be associated to a wind farmWF.

The number of intelligent management servers IMS1, IMS2, . . . , IMSnmay be two or more.

One of the intelligent management servers IMS1, IMS2, . . . , IMSn maye.g. comprise an administrator having administrator rights. These rightsmay e.g. facilitate communication between the associated wind farm(s)and the intelligent management server on the basis of an unrestrictednamespace, i.e. an aggregate namespace. This may e.g. imply, that anadministrator—e.g. intelligent management server IMS1—such as amanufacturer of wind turbines of the wind farm, may have complete accessfor purposes of control, maintenance, testing, updating of software,etc. while a user—e.g. an operator—of the wind farm, e.g. by means ofthe intelligent management server IMS2 may only communicate with thewind farm WF on the basis of a restricted namespace.

As explained above, such fragmentation and dedication of fragmentednamespaces in relation to the communication between the individual windfarm(s) and the intelligent management server(s) may be established anddefined by a combined wind farm configuration tool WCT and namespacetool WNT at an administrator site, e.g. in an intelligent managementserver system IMSY as explained in connection with FIG. 6. Evidently,these tools may also be separated and distributed if so desired.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned two embodiments may also becombined in the sense that several intelligent management servers IMSmay be cross-connected to several wind farms. As an example, wind farmWF1 of FIG. 10 a may be associated to more than one intelligentmanagement server IMS, e.g. as explained in connection with FIG. 10 b.

FIG. 11 illustrates the advantageous principle of how an intelligentmanagement server IMS may merge two or more different namespaces intoone single merged namespace MN.

The figure illustrates an intelligent management server IMS, two windfarms WF1, WF2, two namespaces NS1, NS2 and a merged namespace MN. Aclient or an IMS connectable to different wind farms WF1, WF2 may beprovided with completely different namespaces N due to possibledifferences between the wind farms WF1, WF2. This may in accordance withthe known prior art involve a problem in that the data of the wind farmsWF1, WF2 may be represented differently and may furthermore be dependenton different dedicated clients C. This figure illustrates that theintelligent management server IMS is capable of merging two differentnamespaces NS1, NS2 into one single merged namespace MN. This willevidently entail an easy and uniform overview of data from all connectedwind farms, but may also involve that the user, e.g. an operator maycontrol several wind farms in a homogenous manner and evensimultaneously. An example of a making the data of wind farms uniformaccording to a merged namespace is illustrated in the following:

The gear oil temperature of a wind turbine in a first wind farm may bemetered by reading the following attribute:

turbine1.gear.oiltemp

The gear oil temperature of a wind turbine in a second wind farm may bemetered by reading the following attribute:

turbine1.gear.oiltemp

The gear oil temperature of wind turbine 1 may be referenced in themerged namespace MN:WF1.turbine1.gear.oiltemp

The gear oil temperature of wind turbine 1 may be referenced in themerged namespace MN:WF2.turbine1.gear.oiltemp

This way the intelligent management server IMS may differentiate betweenthe two different attributes by inserting the wind farm name into thereference. Note however, that the above example not is understoodlimiting and is only constituting an example of making data homogenous.

It should be mentioned that the two namespaces NS1, NS2 illustrated inthis figure may be either aggregate or fragmented.

Thus, a very advantageous invention in accordance with the presentinvention is the merged or joint namespace which makes it possible toconnect to different wind farms having different namespaces in uniformand homogenous manner.

1. A wind farm monitoring and control system, said system comprising atleast one wind farm, at least one intelligent management serverconnectable to said at least one wind farm via a data communicationnetwork, at least one wind farm configuration tool related to saidintelligent management server for establishment of at least oneconnection to said at least one wind farm.
 2. The wind farm monitoringand control system according to claim 1, wherein said system furthercomprises a namespace defining a set of logical elements.
 3. The windfarm monitoring and control system according to claim 2, wherein saidwind farm further comprises means for processing data according to saidnamespace.
 4. The wind farm monitoring and control system according toclaim 2, wherein said namespace is restricted according to user specificauthentication and/or authorization properties.
 5. The wind farmmonitoring and control system according to claim 2, wherein saidnamespace is defined according to a connected intelligent managementserver.
 6. The wind farm monitoring and control system according toclaim 2, wherein said system further comprises a client connectable tosaid intelligent management server via a data communication network forsurveillance and control of said wind farms via said intelligentmanagement server.
 7. The wind farm monitoring and control systemaccording to claim 6, wherein said client may edit and control saidnamespace by means of a wind farm namespace tool.
 8. The wind farmmonitoring and control system according to claim 1, wherein said windfarm configuration tool comprises means for definition of wind farmconnections to at least one wind farm.
 9. The wind farm monitoring andcontrol system according to claim 2, wherein said namespace is stored inrelation to said wind farm.
 10. The wind farm monitoring and controlsystem according to claim 2, wherein said namespace is stored at thewind farm in relation to a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition(SCADA) server.
 11. The wind farm monitoring and control systemaccording to claim 2, wherein said namespace is at least partlydistributed between said wind parks to said intelligent managementserver.
 12. The wind farm monitoring and control system according toclaim 1, wherein said intelligent management server comprises means forretrieval of a namespace from a wind farm in connection with connectingto a wind farm.
 13. The wind farm monitoring and control systemaccording to claim 1, wherein said wind farm comprises means formaintaining an event-log which involves storage of type and time of allevents at least partly.
 14. The wind farm monitoring and control systemaccording to claim 1, wherein said intelligent management servercomprises security facilities.
 15. The wind farm monitoring and controlsystem according to claim 1, wherein said at least one connection iscommunicating on the basis of a namespace established by a wind farmnamespace tool.
 16. The wind farm monitoring and control systemaccording to claim 15, wherein said namespace tool is associated to orincorporated in said wind farm configuration tool.
 17. A method ofmonitoring and controlling a wind farm comprising the steps ofestablishing wind farm connections from an intelligent management serverto at least one wind farm on the basis of definitions established bymeans of a wind farm configuration tool, obtaining a namespace from saidat least one wind farm, obtaining measure or monitoring data on saidintelligent management server from said at least one wind farm.
 18. Themethod of monitoring and controlling a wind farm according to claim 17,wherein said method comprises the step of controlling at least onelogical element of said wind farm.
 19. The method of monitoring andcontrolling a wind farm according to claim 17, wherein said wind farmconnections define at least one specified wind farm and at least onespecified intelligent management server between which connections aremade or are to be made.
 20. The method of monitoring and controlling awind farm according to claim 17, wherein said method further comprisesthe step of dedicating a namespace to said connection by means of a windfarm namespace tool.